| Notes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sucrose (table sugar) | sugar | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | Reference point: PAC 100 and POD 100 by definition of both scales. |
| Acacia Honey | syrup | 97 | 143 | 82 | 81 | Monofloral honey, fructose-rich; listed under aromatics in the database. |
| Agave Syrup | syrup | 103 | 130 | 77 | 68 | Mostly free fructose, hence the high PAC for a liquid. |
| Allulose | rare sugar | 70 | 190 | 100 | 100 | D-psicose. About 70% of sucrose sweetness with the PAC of a monosaccharide. |
| Apple Sugar (66%) | sugar | 88 | 122 | 99 | 66 | Spray-dried apple juice on a maltodextrin carrier; 66% natural fruit sugars. |
| Brown Rice Syrup | syrup | 26 | 71 | 79 | 76.5 | High-maltose syrup; behaves like a glucose syrup. |
| Chestnut Honey | syrup | 91 | 136 | 83 | 76 | Dark monofloral honey; listed under aromatics in the database. |
| Coconut Blossom Sugar | sugar | 90 | 101 | 97 | 90 | Unrefined palm sap sugar, about 86% of its sugars are sucrose. |
| Coconut Sugar | sugar | 94 | 100 | 98 | 92 | Sucrose-dominant; behaves almost exactly like table sugar. |
| Corn Syrup | syrup | 39 | 62 | 78 | 78 | Retail corn syrup, about DE 42. |
| Erythritol | sugar alcohol | 70 | 280 | 100 | 100 | PAC 280 is a ceiling: erythritol is poorly soluble when cold, so only the dissolved part counts. |
| Glucose Powder | syrup | 44 | 72 | 95 | 95 | Spray-dried glucose syrup, DE 38 to 40. |
| Glucose Syrup | syrup | 40 | 64 | 80 | 80 | Liquid glucose syrup, DE 42, 80% dry solids. |
| Glucose Syrup DE21 | syrup | 18.4 | 40 | 80 | 80 | Low DE: long chains, little sweetness, little PAC. |
| Glucose Syrup DE33 | syrup | 28 | 48 | 80 | 80 | PAC and POD rise with DE. |
| Glucose Syrup DE42 | syrup | 40 | 64 | 80 | 80 | The standard confectioner's grade. |
| Glucose Syrup DE60 | syrup | 52 | 88 | 80 | 80 | High DE: more free glucose, higher PAC. |
| Honey | syrup | 105 | 156 | 82 | 81 | Generic honey; values are per 100 g of product, water included. |
| IMO 900 + Thaumatin (Moonsugar) | bulking agent | 80 | 80 | 99 | 98 | Branded 1:1 sugar replacer: isomaltooligosaccharide bulk sweetened with thaumatin and steviol glycosides. |
| Inulin (Native Chicory) | bulking agent | 10 | 28 | 95 | 8 | Fructan fiber with 6 to 10% residual free sugars; fat mimetic. |
| Inulin HP | bulking agent | 0 | 8 | 95 | 0.5 | Long-chain inulin (DP 23 or more), under 0.5% free sugars. |
| Inverted Sugar | syrup | 91 | 133 | 70 | 70 | Liquid invert, 70% solids; dry-basis coefficients POD 130, PAC 190. |
| Inverted Sugar (High POD) | syrup | 105 | 142.5 | 75 | 75 | Liquid invert, 75% solids, higher sweetness grade. |
| Isomalt | sugar alcohol | 47.5 | 37 | 95 | 95 | Polyol from beet sugar; about half as sweet, low PAC. |
| Lactose | sugar | 16 | 100 | 100 | 100 | Milk sugar. Low sweetness, PAC equal to sucrose, limited solubility. |
| Liquid Glucose | syrup | 40 | 64 | 80 | 80 | Confectioner's liquid glucose, DE 42. |
| Maltitol | sugar alcohol | 85 | 99 | 100 | 100 | Disaccharide polyol; the closest polyol to sucrose on both indices. |
| Maltodextrin | bulking agent | 9.5 | 21 | 95 | 95 | DE 18 assumed; adds body with almost no sweetness. |
| Maltodextrin (Anhydrous) | bulking agent | 10 | 21 | 95 | 95 | Low-DE glucose polymer. |
| Maltodextrin DE12 | bulking agent | 15 | 23 | 95 | 95 | DE 12; the least sweet maltodextrin here. |
| Maltodextrin DE18 | bulking agent | 9.5 | 20.9 | 95 | 95 | DE 18. |
| Maple Syrup | syrup | 66 | 67 | 67 | 66 | Mostly sucrose in about a third of water. |
| Muscovado Sugar | sugar | 96 | 99 | 96 | 95 | Unrefined cane sugar with its molasses. |
| Orange Blossom Honey | syrup | 107 | 157 | 82.5 | 80 | Monofloral honey; listed under aromatics in the database. |
| Polydextrose | bulking agent | 9.6 | 57.6 | 96 | 0 | Glucose-polymer fiber; bulking agent with low sweetness. |
| Sorbitol | sugar alcohol | 60 | 179 | 99.5 | 99.5 | Crystalline polyol; strong freezing-point depressant. |
| Stevia Powder | high-intensity | 30000 | 0 | 100 | 0 | Steviol glycosides, about 300x sucrose. POD is per 100 g of extract; dosed in fractions of a gram. |
| Sucralose | high-intensity | 60000 | 0 | 100 | 0 | About 600x sucrose by weight. POD is per 100 g of sweetener; dosed in fractions of a gram. |
| Sugar - Dextrose | sugar | 64.4 | 174.8 | 92 | 92 | Crystalline glucose monohydrate, 92% solids; dry-basis coefficients POD 70, PAC 190. |
| Sugar - Fructose | sugar | 170 | 190 | 100 | 100 | Crystalline fructose; the sweetest common sugar. |
| Sugarcane Molasses | syrup | 66 | 85 | 75 | 60 | Only 60% sugars; the rest of the solids are minerals and non-sugar matter. |
| Syrup (Monin) | syrup | 65 | 65 | 65 | 65 | Flavored cane-sugar syrup, 65 Brix; behaves as a sucrose solution. |
| Trehalose | sugar | 42.8 | 95 | 95 | 95 | Crystalline dihydrate; dry-basis coefficients POD 45, PAC 100. |
| Trimoline | syrup | 99 | 144 | 76 | 76 | Commercial invert sugar paste (Trimoline), 76% solids by the gelato-table convention. |
| Wildflower Honey | syrup | 108 | 157 | 82.9 | 81.5 | Polyfloral honey; listed under aromatics in the database. |
| Xylitol | sugar alcohol | 100 | 220 | 100 | 100 | Five-carbon polyol; same sweetness as sucrose, more than twice the PAC. |
How to use these numbers
The PAC of a mix is a weighted sum. Take the grams of each ingredient in one kilogram of mix, multiply by its PAC divided by 100, and add everything up. A base with 160 g of sucrose and 40 g of dextrose per kilogram gives 160 x 1.00 plus 40 x 1.90, about 236, before counting the lactose that milk solids bring. The balancer does this sum for every ingredient, including the ones that are not sugars.
Targets published on this site: PAC 220 to 280 for gelato and 280 to 340 for sorbetto, which has no fat to keep it soft. Below the range the product freezes hard and serves icy; above it the product stays soft in the display case and melts fast on the spoon. The full reasoning and the exceptions are in What is PAC in gelato. The balancer applies a band per base type that is slightly wider than these figures.
POD works the same way, on a per 100 g basis: grams of each ingredient in 100 g of mix times its POD divided by 100, summed. Targets published on this site: POD 16 to 22 for gelato and 24 to 28 for sorbetto, read as sucrose-equivalent grams per 100 g of mix. See What is POD in gelato. For stevia and sucralose the POD in the table is per 100 g of the sweetener itself, which is why the number is in the tens of thousands: 0.05 g of sucralose in 100 g of mix contributes 0.05 x 600, that is 30 POD points, and no PAC at all.
Every value is per 100 g of product as sold, water included, so syrups and honeys show lower figures than the sugars they contain. To compare on a dry basis, divide by the solids fraction: inverted sugar at PAC 133 and 70% solids is PAC 190 dry. Two practical cautions: lactose from milk, cream and milk powder counts toward PAC even though nobody weighs it as a sugar, and erythritol only depresses the freezing point while it stays dissolved, so its PAC of 280 is a ceiling that holds at low dosage, not a value you can multiply freely.
How to cite
Suggested citation:
Freire, M. (2026). PAC and POD of Sugars and Sweeteners for Gelato (Reference Table). Free Gelato Balancing App. https://freegelatobalancing.app/ingredients/data/sugars-pac-pod
Canonical URL: https://freegelatobalancing.app/ingredients/data/sugars-pac-pod (CSV: https://freegelatobalancing.app/data/sugars-pac-pod.csv)
License: this table and the CSV are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You may copy, redistribute and adapt them, including for commercial use, as long as you credit Free Gelato Balancing App and link to this page.
Compiled by Marco Freire, chef and gelatiere. Sources for each value are on the ingredient's own page. Table generated on 2026-09-10.
Looking for the rest of the database? Browse every ingredient or see every ingredient with PAC, POD, MSNF and solids in one table.